Kathy Unplugged! So Many Choices

Dog training is an activity designed to elicit, modify and control the behaviors of dogs. It requires cognitive skill as well as physical skill and it obliges dog trainers to make seemingly endless choices about methods, tools and priorities. From the initial choice of how to get the desired dog-behavior to occur, to later decisions about how to integrate the learned behavior into the dog's repertoire and daily life, the trainer must consider practicality, expediency and the dog's emotional welfare.

We dog trainers aspire to make the best choices possible. And so we continue to educate ourselves, by studying the science, by watching great trainers in action, by brainstorming ideas and then trying them out with our own dogs, and by discussing concepts with our colleagues. This workshop will include all these activities. We'll combine lecture segments about the practical application of SMART (See, Mark and Reward Training) with plenty of dog-training exercises, demonstrations, games and time for questions. Think of this workshop as a chance to participate in a two-day trainers think tank.

This two day seminar is packed full of information, for Kathy is truly unplugged! It combines lecture, powerpoint, video clips and instructional training with participants and their dogs.An added bonus is a short lesson on TTouch, a powerful tool in your toolbox for training. Lots of live footage of dogs being trained by clicker and treats to do various behaviors. Some of the behaviors are rear leg lift, holding a cookie and targeting that can be used for a variety of purposes.

As an associate Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist (CAAB), Kathy Sdao is uniquely qualified to work with dog training and behavior problems. Unlike "dog trainer," "dog psychologist," or "behaviorist," titles that anyone can give themselves, a CAAB is a certified professional with graduate degree in animal behavior field. For the past 26 years, Kathy has earned her living as a full-time animal trainer, first with marine mammals and now with dogs and their people. As a graduate student at the University of Hawaii in the 1980's, Kathy Sdao was part of a team that trained dolphins to solve complex cognitive puzzles. These dolphin “mind games” were part of intensive research into how animals think and process language. After receiving a master's degree in experimental psychology, she was hired by the U.S. Navy to train dolphins for defense-related open-ocean tasks.

Next, Kathy worked as a marine mammal trainer at the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium in Tacoma, Washington. There she expanded her training skills by working with beluga whales, walruses, porpoises, sea lions, polar bears and otters. Years later, Kathy and another zookeeper left their jobs to create Tacoma's first dog daycare facility, Puget Hound Daycare. This is where Kathy began teaching group classes for pet owners. Since leaving Puget Hound in 1999, Kathy has been lecturing nationally on operant conditioning, sharing her passion for the science of training and the awesome power of clicker training which she has experienced with so many species. She has been honored to be on the faculty of Karen Pryor’s ClickerExpos since 2003. She also has trained animal actors, written for The Clicker Journal and the APDT Newsletter, served as a subject-matter expert for the Delta Society's Service Dog Education System, conducted rat-training camp for Terry Ryan's DogSense, instructed at Dogs of Course’s Instructor Training Course and appeared as the "Way Cool Scientist" on an episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy!